Monday, 8 September 2014

The Aliens

Two gentlemen on a small boat out at sea. Chatting, reminiscing on
old times. Perhaps they served together in
the Second World War. So what year would that
make this photo? Late 1960s? Early 1970s?
What if I were to tell you that these men, if
they are indeed the age they appear, were
probably too old to have served in the First
World War and that the start of World War Two
was still 13 months in the future? The photo
is scanned from a glass slide dated August
1938. A timeless image isn't it? I picked up
around 150 glass slides at a car-boot sale
last week, all housed in 4 long wooden boxes.
I've only gone through a quarter of them so
far, but the quality of the best is
outstanding. More to come, I'm sure.

Gordon Anderson (brother of Kenny, a.k.a.
King Creosote) was a founding member of The
Beta Band, writing the magnificent 'Dry the Rain' from their debut EP, among others. Anderson left The
Beta Band in 1997 after a period of ill
health, going on to produce a series of
wonderfully adventurous releases under the
Lone Pigeon moniker. Following The Beta
Band's demise in 2004, Anderson reunited with
two former members, John Maclean and Robin
Jones, to become The Aliens, who issued
two fine albums, before dropping off the map
in 2009. 'Boats', originally a stripped down, solo Lone Pigeon tune, was re-recorded by The
Aliens to glorious effect and issued on LP
number two, 'Luna'.

C. Glad you enjoyed it. Never thought about Crosby specifically, but now that you mention it...

SB. It seems that way 'cos I only mention the good stuff I find! Lone Pigeon is something of a maverick genius - his music is not all like this by any means. If you bump into any of his stuff, it's always worth checking out though.